Mindful Movement Monday

Because why not?! My movement practice is a huge part of my life and a big part of what keeps me healthy, strong and able to function at my very best for my family. I’m a pretty active person naturally; running the dog, chasing after kids, cooking and doing house chores and such. I just move lot. I can’t really help it.

However, I also try to work in some sort of mindful movement every day and it has made a huge difference in my spiritual and mental well being as well as my physical health. It’s usually in the form of yoga type movements, flows/vinyasa or a combination of flow/circuits depending on my energy level. It just really helps quiet my mind, slow the racing thoughts zipping through my head and helps me be more present. I typically do some sort of slower/stretchy type movements in the morning and then something again about 10 minutes before my kids get off the bus… all kinds of craziness explodes everywhere when they get home and I need all the help I can get! Homework, snack, friends, activities, nap wake up etc… it can sometimes be overwhelming and having a calm, present peace of mind before they get home helps me LOADS.

When I’m afforded the luxury I will go to a class, but I’d say about 80% of my practice currently is what I’ve sort of thought of off the top of my head or what my body feels like doing that day. And some of them feel really good! I’m getting to the point where I’d like to remember a lot of these movements and document my journey. So I’m going to try and post some sort of Mindful Movement with explanations and details every Monday so that I can go back and repeat it if I’m in a rut and also so you can give it a shot if you’re feeling the movements!

Happy Monday my friends and I hope you like your first Mindful Movement Monday!

First Movement is a rolling vinyasa. It feels sooooo nice this way and really connects the movement with the breath in a unique way. You can almost feel yourself riding your breath in a wave. Cueing goes like this:

Start in down dog. Inhale ripple forward to plank, initiating the movement from your heels and feeling the movement roll up the back your legs, through your core as you tuck your tailbone under and finally up your spine as you round your upper back bringing your head through your shoulders and leaning forward into a good strong plank. Exhale, and lower down slowly, keeping your elbows tucked into your rib cage all the way down to your belly. You can rest your forehead briefly on your mat if you wish. Inhale lift up from your core roll your shoulders back and come into cobra. Exhale tuck your toes, bend your knees, tilt your tailbone and send yourself back into Downward facing dog.

Second Movement is a crouching down dog to rotating low Lunge maneuver. This can be done slow to warm up the ligaments and muscles or sped up into more of a circuit like cardio movement.

Start in downward facing dog and bend your knees. Inhale step the right foot forward and replace the right hand with it, rolling the heart open to the right as you do so. Repeat.

Third movement is a Wild Thing to Lizard Lunge type deal.

This also starts in down dog and the inhale will have you slowly raising your right leg up into the air. The exhale will have you bend that right knee and slowly roll open on that left hand, placing the foot behind you into wild thing. The next inhale will have you open your heart to the sky and back bend as far as is comfortable for you. You shouldn’t feel

I’ve had to learn how to be mindful of actually making time for moving in a day. My career keeps me at a computer all the time. If I don’t make a special effort to move, I’d become attached to this office chair.

I used to practice yoga for years and love it, love the breathing in and out and stretching. Every session made me so refresh and energized. I still do the sun salutation once or twice a week before I start my real work out, more like a warm up to my body.

I used to do yoga but these days I have been concentrating on running and weights. I need to get back into it because the stretching is so important for my own success in other areas as well. Thanks for the reminder.

Aww sorry you had a bad first experience. I used to feel that way too for sure. But then I found that It was so good for presence and peace of mind. And done correctly, the slower flows can be some of the more difficult!